


A New Beginning

by lifeofashieldagent



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-06-01 20:19:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6534979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifeofashieldagent/pseuds/lifeofashieldagent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coulson's team has a guest, because Coulson wants to keep an eye on her, but she has her own agenda to be there. </p><p>Introducing a new character, Katherine Shipton!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time introducing a new character, and I've actually grown quite attached to her. I hope you enjoy!

I'm walking home from the movies, it's a beautiful day. My best friend Martha, and her older brother Wayne are with me. We reach their home and Martha hugs me goodbye and walks to the door, she turns around just before entering and calls out to her brother,  
"Hey! Aren't you coming?"  
"I think I'll drop Kate to her home, it's really dark." he replies.  
I see Martha smirk and go inside.  
"Dark? You know I can take care of myself Wayne." I say to him.  
He smiles and says "Yeah I know, but it was the only excuse I could come up with to walk with you to your home."  
In this moment, I thank god it's dark, because he can't see my cheeks go red. The person I've had a crush on for ages, he's flirting with me. This is the best day ever. We walk, really slowly. Could it be possible that he likes me? I mean, he did make up an excuse just to take a walk with me. How in the world is this happening! My home is only 10 minutes away, so in a little while we're there. 

I thank him for walking me home, and we have a little awkward moment in silence before I go ahead and hug him goodbye. He turns around and is walking away, leaving me smiling like an idiot. I wait till he goes completely out of my sight, and then I turn around. My house is around twenty steps away. One look at it and I can tell that something is wrong, very wrong. The door is unlocked, but I can't hear dad in the living room. That is very unlike him, to leave doors open. I start walking, when I hear sounds of a scuffle coming from upstairs. Now this would probably freak out anyone, but it freaks me out on whole different level, because that's what happens when your father works for a super secret agency like SHIELD. Everything gets ten times more dangerous.

\---

I tip toe inside the house, and no one is on the ground floor. I enter the living room and reach straight for the antique lamp in the corner. I pull out the icer from behind it, and now that I'm armed, I feel somewhat less freaked out. I might not be a super spy like my dad, but he did teach me a thing or two to protect myself, and according to him I'm the most badass 17 year old he's ever met. I head upstairs. The noise of the scuffle is gone but I can hear some sort of argument. I'm really close to dad's room now, and I catch a few lines like 'where is it? Tell us now!' and I hear dad saying no. He isn't really denying knowing, but he just refusing to tell them about whatever it is. I can feel that he's going to be in trouble and I plan to surprise them. 

I'm almost at the door when a shot goes off, then another. The shots don't sound like icers, but real bullets. My heart stops, the next thing I know I run up to the door and I'm looking at dad just lying there, not moving one bit. For a second, which seems like a million, I feel nothing. I feel empty. Like something was just stolen, ripped right out of me. I feel nothing, and at the same time I feel too much. Out of all those feelings, anger is most prominent. There are two people inside, one armed, holding a gun to where dad must've been five seconds back. Another is close to the window. I lose it and I put all of dad's training to use. 

It's like something has gotten control over my brain. I let go of the icer as my arms are trembling too much, but I just go push the first guy into the mirror in the room. It shatters all around us. The other guy, instead of trying to help, opens the window and steps out. He then takes dad's body and carries it down. I'm preoccupied with the first guy to stop the second. I'm too angry to give up, and so I pin him down in a little while and punch him and keep punching him till I feel he isn't moving anymore. Not like dad, though. This guy is still breathing, dad wasn't, I could tell. I hear an engine come to life in the lane behind our house... the second guy escaped, I hate myself for not thinking. As I stop hitting this guy and sit on the floor beside him, I see a huge pool of blood where dad's head was. I lose all hope of him being okay, no one can bleed this much and still be okay... I, I feel nothing. This doesn't seem real. Just a little while ago, I was declaring this the best day ever, and now I'm an orphan all over again. Dad-dad is gone, and I'm all alone. It's just me.

\---

I don't remember what exactly happens next, I just remember a lot of police, and me describing everything to them. Except dad's occupation of course, for everyone else he just works at a advertising agency. A lot of people come ask me if I'm okay, but I say nothing. 

The truth is inside me, the truth that I can not tell anyone except someone from the agency. They took him. They didn't even leave me his body to mourn. They-they were monsters. I still feel empty, and I wonder if I always will. I lock all of the sadness and the helplessness inside somewhere. All that I leave in me is anger, but even that I'm not going to show to anyone. This is my anger and I will keep it inside till I see them again. And when I do, I will kill them. Each one. I swear, I will. They've taken my life away, I'll take all of theirs.

I'm sitting on the stairs outside my house, police men are all inside, taking a look around the place. I see a black SUV park a little further away, and something tells me this is help, real help. A man steps out of the car and I recognise him immediately. It's the guy from dad's old academy photographs. He comes to me and introduces himself,  
"Hi Katherine, my name's Phil Coulson, I was, I was a friend of your father's. Is he really... Is he?"  
"Dead, yes." I reply.  
For a second I show no emotion, and I decide not to ever, but then I look at him and out of somewhere a tear rolls down and then another, he comes and sits beside me, enveloping me. I break down in his arms, crying for the first time over what has happened. I'm just murmuring 'dad' over and over, and I hear Coulson say, 

"You'll be okay, Katherine. You'll be okay. I promise."


	2. Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the events of that night, a very shaken but resolute Katherine is brought to the Zephyr One and soon, asked to make a choice.

I don't realise how long I cry on the steps of my home, but then we hear Coulson's phone ring.  
He answers, and says "Great, meet you at the Bus... Yeah the new bus. Bye." 

He tells me his people have handled the legalities and now I can go with him. We walk up to his car, I sit in the passenger seat, still sobbing. I hate myself right now, I hate being vulnerable, I hate feeling like I'm made of glass, one that could shatter any second. Like he could read my mind, Coulson looks at me and says,  
"You know, you can cry right now. This isn't something you just forget. Your father, he was a great man, and this is a terrible loss for everyone who knew him. But for you, it's different. He loved you so much, and especially after your mum, after she was gone, it was just you two. So you are allowed to cry as much as you want, because what you're going through right now isn't something anyone is ever prepared for, even in this line of work." 

I thank him in between sobs, then sit looking out of the window as I always did when dad would drive. He'd tell me I was a dreamer, that my head was in the clouds and that one day I'd reach them too, make all my dreams true. For a second I just close my eyes and imagine that it's dad driving right now, that this is just another normal day, but then I see the blood on the floor, and I hear the gun shot, and it all comes back to me once again.

\---

We reach an empty field and Coulson steps out, so I follow. He begins to walk towards nothingness. As I begin to wonder where he's going, a plane, well not a regular plane, something much larger than a plane materialises in front of us. If I wasn't such a mess right now, I'd be so excited. 

"This is the Zephyr One, my team's mobile home. You'll find everything you need in there." says Coulson, and I just nod. 

When we're inside, and I can see a few people here and there, he turns to me and asks me if I'd like to get introduced to the team right now, or later. I realise I'm looking just as much as a mess as I'm feeling like one. I ask him if I can freshen up first, and have some time alone. He nods, and leads me to a room a few steps above, into the interior of the plane. There's a bed, a mirror, a drawer, another door to the shower, and a TV monitor in the room. He shows me around, tells me some of my clothes were brought as well and where I can find them. He leaves me to myself, asking me to just press that one button on the desk if I need something. I thank him for everything, and close the door behind him. 

Once he leaves, I'm alone and I remember. Everything. What follows is maybe hours of crying on the floor right there. I have no idea how long I'm there, it could be ten minutes or ten hours, but after a while I'm out of tears and my voice runs out. I can't scream anymore, I can barely breath properly, my eyes are dry. My tiredness makes it harder to think too, which is a blessing since whenever I think it's about the events of last night. So now I just sit there for a while. It's true what they say about feeling better after crying, I feel somewhat lighter. Well, as light as I can feel on this day. 

I then make myself get up. I need to go out some time, no matter how much I want to stay cooped up in here for the rest of my life. I freshen up, put on a faded blue jeans, and a black shirt that my dad bought me. It somehow makes me feel better, and I realise how I can still think about dad and not feel sick if I focus on the nicer memories we shared. I tuck it in, he always said I looked more 'SHIELD' with it that way.

\---

I stand in front of the mirror and decide this is how close to normal I can get today, and to be honest I don't really care how I look right now. The big bags under my eyes, my puffy cheeks and my cracking voice will be enough to let anyone know how I am right now. I press the button Phil had pointed out, and wait. There's a knock on the door and I open it to see a guy standing outside. 

"Hey, I'm Hunter, Lance Hunter. Uh, you called?" he says.  
I nod, I tell him Coulson asked me to let him know when I was okay enough to come out.  
"Okay, then. Let me show you to his office." he says, looking extremely nervous.

It's like he doesn't feel he was fit for the job. I guess he didn't feel he could handle such a breakable person. He's wrong, though. My crying session ended with me deciding to show as less emotion as I can now. People don't take you seriously when you're a mess, especially when you're seventeen, no one will take me seriously if I don't make them. And I need to make them, because I need to find the people behind this. I'll kill them. Actually, I won't just kill them, I'll hurt them, slowly. I'll hurt them like they hurt me. They've taken everything from me, they've left me all alone. And this isn't the first time that has happened.

I used to live in an orphanage, I was one of the kids who's parents left them at the place's door. I was there till I was seven, and then one day I saw them. Mr. And Mrs. Shipton, they were back then. Soon they became mom and dad. Ryan Shipton and Amelia Shipton became my family, and for the first time in my life I felt like I belonged somewhere. And I became from just Katherine, which was the name given at the orphanage, to Katherine Shipton. Eight years of joy after that, but then two years back mum died during a robbery at a bank. She'd just gone to do some work for dad as he was busy at a SHIELD assignment, and she was shot by robbers. Wrong place, wrong time. After that, dad left field work. He came home, and it was just the two of us. And now I'm alone all over again. 

I will make the people responsible pay, even if I die achieving that. 

\---

We reach Coulson's office, Lance looks at me and says,  
"I hope you're prepared for a big introduction, the entire team is in there."  
I must be looking nervous, because he adds,  
"If at any point it's too overwhelming don't hesitate and just tell me, okay? I'll take you right back to your room."  
"Okay, and thank you, Lance." I reply.  
"You're most welcome, Katherine. And call me Hunter." he says.  
"and it's just Kate." I say.  
He smiles at me, nods, and we enter.

It sure is a big team. Coulson asks me if I'm okay, I tell him I will be, he smiles. Then introductions are made.  
"Everyone, this is Katherine Shipton," says Coulson.  
"Kate." Hunter interrupts, and I smile, a tiny bit, for the first time.  
Coulson continues, "Kate, yes. And Kate, this is everyone else. I'll let them introduce themselves."  
Then there's lot of different names thrown at me. Bobbi, Daisy, Mack, Fitz and Simmons, and May. Thankfully, I'm good with names, so I can place them correctly at once. What follows is a lot of awkward silence, I don't think Coulson thought this meeting through. Everyone is just looking at each other, and so I help them by starting to talk.

"So, um, what's-what's the plan next? I mean, where am I going to go?"  
"Well, it's entirely in your hands. We can send you to your aunt, your mother's sister, I talked to her, she wanted to take you in. Or, you have another choice. You could stay here. With the team. I know you're well trained by your dad, we can train you more. You can see the world that your dad was a part of. Ryan didn't shut up about you every time we met, I know you two were close. He was a good friend, and I would like to personally make sure that you're fine after him. I'd love if you stay." Coulson says.  
I'm being given a choice that will decide where my life goes from here, and I hope I will make the right one. 

\---

Everyone's looking at me, waiting. I think of what I want to do, avenge my dad. I think of how much easier it'll be to do it from here. But I also don't want to keep anyone in the dark, so I tell them the truth.  
"I would like to stay. But you should know, that if I stay, I'll be staying mostly because I want to avenge dad, I want to find the people who did this and kill them. It's not the only reason, but it's one of the biggest." I say.  
Coulson replies almost instantly, as if he was expecting me to say that,  
He says, "I understand. Mostly because I want to do the same thing. They killed my friend and left his daughter without parents, I'm going to take them down. We, are going to take them down. And in the meanwhile, maybe you might just find a home around here."  
"Yup," Hunter interrupts, "We're basically one really big, really weird family, that you're most welcome to join, Katheri- Kate." 

I smile, a bigger one than before. I feel like I might just actually avenge dad, and in doing that these people might just grow on me. This might just be a new beginning.


	3. Pancakes.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katherine is slowly settling into the Zephyr, beginning to feel like part of the team, like a part of the craziest, scariest roller-coaster ever. And in all honesty, she is liking it.

It's been three days since I decided to stay.

Mack and Daisy went by my place and got me most of my belongings. My room is in between May's and Mack's. Which is bad, because I'm used to sleeping till the afternoon, but these two wake up before the sun even begins to rise. May wakes up and is ready to kick ass in like half an hour, and Mack just heads on to the garage to fix stuff, because he misses doing it all day now that he's in the field more. Everyone's been pretty nice to me. Hunter, especially, he brought be cookies that kinda smelled like joy and happiness and all nice things, and when I asked him where he got them from he wouldn't tell me. I found out only next day, when I saw Fitz looking for his favorite cookies, and Hunter winked at me.

Having a laugh with these guys, or listening to their stories, time runs so fast. I almost forget what happened, why I'm here. But then in the tiniest of moments of me being with just me, it all comes back. And it continues to make my blood boil. I came here on the night of Tuesday. It's Saturday morning, and my hopes of having a stay-in-bed-till-lunch weekend are crushed as I hear moving in May's room on the left and I know she's up. I have a delicate sleep, so I can't really go back to bed once I've woken up. I try to, though, for a while. But then I give up, and in ten minutes I'm out of my room, heading for the lounge, where I'll probably see Daisy with her head in her laptop. That's basically all she does when she's not out on a mission. Always has something to research, or hack, or find. Today, I see Fitz is there with her.

"Does this plane have no concept of a weekend?" I remark as I enter.  
Daisy laughs,  
"What exactly is a weekend? I'm sorry, I must have forgotten." she says.  
"Yeah, this job does kind of take away the sense of days." Fitz adds

I settle down on the couch next to theirs, and ask them what they're looking for in there.

"Oh, just- you know- nothing special- just some, um, regular protocol- or- just a little-" says Daisy. I stop her right there.  
"Okay, both of you. It's fine if you don't wanna tell me. Also, you're a terrible liar." I say.  
Fitz takes a deep breath, "It's not you we're hiding it from, it's the Director. He's been working with the ATCU, and even though they did help us contain Lash a few months back, we still don't trust them with what they're doing with the inhumans. So, we put a bug in one of their systems, but we can't get it activated." he finishes.  
"Let me have a look." I say.

Hacking is a kind of interest, something I learnt from my dad. He was really into computers. I take the laptop, and my fingers work almost without any thought. I see where they were stuck, and kick back a few steps and take a completely different path. It's fun, I haven't had my hands on a computer in so many days. Also, I like being busy, it takes my mind of.. other things. Daisy and Fitz get up and I can feel their faces right behind me. As I end the hack, and the bug comes to life, I hear a harmonious 'ohhhh' from the back. "Yeaaaah." I say, handing the laptop back. They tell me Coulson doesn't know of this, and like a five year old I pretend to zip my lips and throw away the key.

"My field work is making my hacking skills rusty." says Daisy.  
"Yeah, you got earthquake powers, and that has made your hacking slightly rusty. Oh! How worse can things get?" Fitz says, sarcastically.  
"Whatever." replies Skye, going back to her dear laptop.

 

\---

 

And then I smell it, PANCAKES!  
Jemma and Mack enter with pancakes. They smell like home, so much that I can almost imagine my mom in the kitchen, humming to an old song as she makes the most amazing pancakes in the universe. They lay them down on the center table, and then Mack says ever so proudly, "It's my grandma's recipe, Jemma and I thought we'd put a little life into this weekend. So, who'd like to- hey, hey, Kate, what is it, why- why are you crying?"

Yes, that's what's happening. I'm crying. I realize only when he points out.

"I'm not- I'm not- I mean I am but it's just- the pancakes, mom used to- oh forget it, food first. Shouldn't keep them waiting." I say.

I quickly take a piece, and gesture others to too. They know I'm not gonna talk about it so they just go along. The pancakes do make it better. I smile a little, as I remember my mom saying 'I know exactly what will turn that frown upside down. Pancakes!' every time I was blue. I'm lost in memories, but then I'm brought back to the present when Director enters the room. He looks at the pancakes like an actual five-year-old. 

He looks at my eyes, teary, but before he can ask, Mack gives him a look that probably means 'not now' because he goes back to being in love with his pancake.

 

\---

 

One moment, you're enjoying pancakes. The next, you're fastening your seat belts as May rushes to the cockpit. The alarms caught us all by surprise. A hyrda jet had locked on us. It was a sneaky one, it isn't easy to hide from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radars for long. Hunter looks disturbingly excited about this whole scenario. "Just wait for it." he says. Wait for what... I begin to think, when I understand what he meant. The cavalry is a fancy flier. (No one tell her I called her 'the cavalry' in my head.) We are flying in every direction at once. I can hear the lab equipment fall and break, the garage has it's own noise. I pray for the pantry's state. Jemma and Fitz are holding hands under the table. It makes me slightly happy in this state of panic. They are the kind of pair that has no idea how in love they are. The director screams to me over all this noise.

 

"YOU ALRIGHT?" he asks.

"YEAH. IT'S KINDA FUN." I answer.

"THE CAVALRY HAS THAT EFFECT ON PEOPLE." says Daisy.

"SHE SAID THE WORD." says Fitz.

"DO NOT TELL HER." says Skye, looking truly scared.

 

I suppose it makes sense, May is her S.O., she can have her revenge in many ways. Small talk during an attack. What has my life become? Honestly, though, even if his does end badly, at least I'm with a fun group of people. And what can be a better last mean that pancakes? 

**Author's Note:**

> I've only recently started writing fanfics, so you're most welcome to leave comments and reviews below!


End file.
